Canes Contender? You Can Forget It
College football review
Attention everyone sending e-mails touting Miami as a national force again: East Carolina 27, Miami 23.
I knew what I was looking at when I saw this terribly overrated Hurricanes team beat another mediocre Big Ten team, Ohio State, in the Kickoff Classic.
Miami couldn’t hold a 23-3 lead early in the third quarter over an East Carolina team (4-0) that has lived out of a hotel and has not been home since Hurricane Floyd forced evacuations and closed the school last week.
The game was moved to Raleigh, 85 miles west of ECU’s Greenville campus.
One more time. The Hurricanes (2-2) are not ready for anything close to the Top 10.
“I don’t even want to describe how I feel,” said Miami quartrerback Kevin Kelly. “If I was to say it, the NCAA might fine me.”
Wouldn’t that be interesting?
Just an opinion
If Penn State is going to win a national championship, it will only happen with Rashard Casey at quarterback. After his scintillating 13-for-15 passing (196 yards) and 66 rushing in the Nits’ 45-24 thumping of Indiana, it looks like it’s time for Joe Pa to have just one QB.
Goodbye Heisman?
Chalk up a former Heisman Trophy candidate on Michigan’s victim list.
Wisconsin’s Ron Dayne: Zero rushing yards in the second half of the Wolverines’ 21-16 victory.
Michigan held Dayne to 88 yards on 22 carries and he was stuffed for no gains on a pair of critical third-down runs. Wisconsin did not even give the ball to him in the final 10 minutes.
The detractors who say he disappears in big games might be onto something.
Heisman watch
It looks like a two-man competition from here. Period. Forget the silly Top 10 lists. Florida State’s electrifying receiver Peter Warrick or Purdue quarterback Drew Brees.
Warrick took four catches 103 yards and returned a punt 75 yards for a TD in FSU’s 42-10 romp over North Carolina. He has 30 receptions for 441 yards and four TDs.
Brees put an exclamation point on another big game with a 99-yard TD hookup with my favorite college player, Vinny Sutherland (is there a faster player in the game?), in a 31-23 win over Northwestern.
Brees was 32 of 50 for 405 yards and three TDs. A big game against Michigan on the tube Saturday could close the gap between these two headliners.
Top 15
1. Florida State (4-0): So how do you think Peter Warrick would look in a Philadelphia Eagles uniform next year?
2. Penn State (5-0): Has a part-time quarterback ever received any Heisman Trophy consideration?
3. Florida (4-0): Gators have won four straight over Alabama since the 1992 SEC title game.
4. Michigan (4-0): Wolves derailed Dayne’s Heisman express. Can they do the same to Brees?
5. Nebraska (4-0): Huskers haven’t lost at home to Iowa State since 1977. 6. Texas A&M (3-0): Aggies have lost their last two trips to Texas Tech.
7. Tennessee (2-1): Nice effort against Memphis. Vols are 4-0-1 in last five against Auburn.
8. Georgia Tech (2-1): Yellow Jackets haven’t lost to Maryland at home (5-0).
9. Ohio State (3-1): Still not sure about these Buckeyes.
10. Virginia Tech (3-0): Lost last two to Virginia, and two of last three in Charlottesville.
11. Georgia (3-0): Nice effort against Central Florida.
12. Purdue (4-0): Boilermakers haven’t won at Michigan since ‘66 (0-14). 13. Michigan State (4-0): Spartans are 4-0 for first time in 33 years.
14. Oklahoma (3-0): Josh Heupel for the Heisman. Or is that Bobby Stoops?
15. East Carolina (4-0): You can only hope to contain the Pirates.
Top 20 checkup
No. 3 Florida (4-0) received a huge relief performance from backup running back Robert Gillespie (108 yards, 2 TDs) in 38-10 kill of Kentucky (2-2). Gillespie replaced starter Earnest Graham when he left the game with a knee injury on the game’s second play and carried the load for the well-balanced Spurriers.
In No. 4 Michigan’s 21-16 win over No. 17 Wisconsin, Badgers coach Barry Alvarez, awaiting knee-replacement surgery, coached from the press box.
In No. 6 Nebraska’s 40-10 thumping of Missouri, Huskers’ QB Eric Crouch connected with fomer QB Bobby Newcombe for 53-yard TD to break Mizzou’s back.
No. 6 Texas A&M kicker Terence Kitchens boomed a 62-yard field goal in Aggies’ 23-6 escape from Southern Miss.
Two last-minute penalties moved Central Florida out of field-goal range and a desperation end zone heave on the last play wasn’t caught as No. 11 Georgia survived, 24-23.
The Georgia star of the game was the left upright of the goalpost, which blocked a Central Florida extra point with 5 minutes, 21 seconds left.
Nice of No. 22 Texas coach Mack Brown to sit sophomore QB Major Applewhite late in the third quarter. Guess a 52-0 lead over Baylor was safe.
Applewhite threw for 333 yards on 26 for 37 before he was given the rest of the day off. Brown: Another coach trying to impress Top 25 voters. Another loser.
Can we arrange a Temple-South Carolina (0-4) game ASAP? Lou Holtz’s offense is averaging three points a game after its 17-0 loss to No. 23 Mississippi State. MSU is 4-0 for the time since ‘65.
SOME WIN, SOME LOSE Who are the winners and losers among first-year coaches after the first month? The winners: June Jones has Hawaii at 4-0 after the Rainbows snapped a 26-game losing streak on the road with a 20-0 victory at Southern Methodist. It also was Hawaii’s first Western Athletic Conference road victory in 15 games. And Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops has the Sooners off to a 4-0 start, good enough for the No. 23 spot in this week’s Associated Press poll. The losers include Lou Holtz, who has started 0-4 for the first time in his career when South Carolina sustained a 17-10 loss to Mississippi State. Then there is Baylor coach Kevin Steele. Saturday the Bears dropped to 0-4 - marking their worst start since 1978 - by suffering a 62-0 thrashing against visiting Texas. - Michael Vega, Boston Globe